Open Market Greystone Mercantile

[Kal]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Image Source: Ingrid L'lerim
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

CORPORATION INFORMATION

• Corporation Name: Greystone Mercantile
• Headquarters: Masque
• Locations: Various.
  • The Dreamlands.
  • Lorinia.
  • Denon.
• Operations:
  • Creation and Procurement of Peculiar Curiosities
  • Facilitation of Semi-Legitimate Arrangements
  • Inquiries into the Unknown or Unknowable
  • Collection and Curation of Prime Assets
• Subsidiaries:
  • The Lorinian Trade Association
  • The Cat's Paw
• Assets:
  • The Erex Holdings Corporation (EHC) - 25%
  • The Globex Corporation - [Unknown]
  • The Cozmic Company (CozmiCo)

DESCRIPTION
Secretive, idiosyncratic, and uniquely skilled at procuring artefacts and oddities through legal (or less so) means, Greystone Mercantile, also known as the Greystone Trading House or the Greystone Group, is a less than legal institution primarily known for its grand auctions, ambitious projects, and unusual business practices; while credits are often accepted, barter in artefacts, information, services, and even Souls is usually favoured.

Incorporated in the Netherworld of the Force, Greystone more often than not operates as if uncaring or simply ignorant of local legislation; unlike most conventional corporate entities, it relies more upon freelancers than employees of its own, most of them given only need-to-know intel.

Dubious by any standard, Greystone is nonetheless rarely evil, just morally ambivalent; covert charitable donations are not uncommon, but the Investors will almost never acknowledge this outside vague statements about "repaying Debts to the community" and "honouring Agreements".

RATIONALE
Little is known of the founding of Greystone Mercantile except that a cabal of enterprising Shadows dubbed "the Investors" was responsible. While hardly a company in the legal sense - in fact, much of Greystone's operations are rather illegal - it does more or less operate as such, albeit without the tradeable stocks, public contact information, and droves of bored office workers that characterise most modern commercial enterprises.

Greystone's goals are as diverse as the Investors that govern it - some are primarily concerned with spreading their influence, others with acquiring knowledge or amassing wealth, and still others pursue stranger goals yet. As a group they have proven to be savvy merchants, however, in no small part due to impressive espionage capabilities and an equally impressive commitment to their contractual obligations.

The ease by which the Shadows navigate the Netherworld certainly hasn't hurt, either.

UNSUBBED SUBSIDIARIES

• The Combined Interstellar Shipping and Logistics Organisation: Better known as CISLO among the few who pay it any heed, this shipping consortium moves vast quantities of cargo across the hyperlanes on a daily basis yet is largely unknown to the average consumer, much like the dozens of others like it. No one really cares how their new holopad gets delivered, only that it does - in this, CISLO excels. Its branding is inoffensive, its employees adequately compensated and permitted to unionise, and its same-day delivery program suspiciously good.
• Multistellar Consolidated Financials: One of many opaque "financial management firms" to exist in the shadow of bigger fish like the IGBC, MCF manages stocks portfolios, organises debt, mediates transactions, and produces exactly nothing of worth or value. Its bland branding is ill-suited to draw in private clients, but it generally does an admirable job managing the finances of other firms. As with many of Greystone's subsidiaries, MCF secretly uses prescient brains and other oracles to predict and exploit business trends.
• Sunhawk Starworks: An Outer Rim-based shipwright with a roguish reputation, Sunhawk Starworks is known for its decentralised industries, variable safety standards, and loose relationship with paperwork and accountability. Even Sunhawk doesn't always know what it makes and for who it makes it. For all its faults, the company does produce some mighty fine starships at reasonable rates - it probably doesn't pay its taxes.
• Pentoch & Ereni: A large Corellian law firm known for its considerable expertise in matters of commerce and criminal law, Pentoch & Ereni is considered above average in skill and profitability, though not excessively so. A few star lawyers notwithstanding, its greatest advantage is the exacting precision of its audits and investigations - Pentoch & Ereni lawyers may not outtalk you, but they will often know more than you. On more than one occasion rival law firms have attempted in vain to poach the miracle workers the firm seems to employ as paralegals.